hey folks, been reading with interest the posts about religion, and a quote sprang to mind, although i can't remember at all who said it: "It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the world's wall. Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to its deepest roots, but belief in the sickness that it taught and propogated has continued to exist." i mean no offence to any believers who subscribe to the list, i am merely putting forward some thoughts for discussion. I think it's an interesting idea though. i remember seeing a documentary on telly about Christian missionaries who went to egypt. The egpytians believed that the world was created when one of their gods masturbated, and thus their religious art was full of phallic symbols and graphic detail. To them there was nothing wrong with this. but to the missionaries this was utterly outrageous. they proceeded to deface all the egyptians religious art, and convert them to christianity. then we can look a bit closer to home, and see how christianity hijacked many of the pagan festivals and changed them to suit their own agenda, wiping out paganism almost entirely. this brings to mind another quote, but this time i know who its by: "The Christian resolution to find the world bad and ugly has made the world ugly and bad." FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE i'm not going to go on at length about philosophy and religion, mainly because i have very little knowledge beyond that quote and what i think of it. but the idea of western religions concentrating on saying you mustn't do this and that, and eastern religions being more philosophical and concentrating on contemplation/aspiring to something higher is very interesting, i think anyway. i could probably say a lot more about this, cos i've been thinking about faith a lot recently, my own etc. but before i share that with everyone i think i should sort it out for myself in my head. bye karen xxxxx +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+